You Know That Men In Black 3 Is Lackluster If One Direction Rumors Are The Biggest News To Come Out Of Its Premiere

So last night, One Direction‘s Harry Styles was rumored to have punched a paparazzo. He also sadly revealed that he’d broken up with girlfriend Emily Atack. He and the other 1D guys were wearing variations on the black-and-white outfit, from suspenders to full-on tuxedo shirts. Oh, and this all happened at the Men in Black 3 premiere in New York City, but that’s obviously not the important start of the story.

Usually when a film premieres, especially in Manhattan, the pertinent news is about what the stars (here, Will Smith and Josh Brolin) had to say about the movie, and what their ladies were wearing on the red carpet. Not to mention that this premiere took place not in a boring old theater, but on New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum as part of Fleet Week. There was so much that could have been said about this sequel, set in NYC in the ’60s, and yet all the attention and drama focused on the teenage singers in NYC on this night in 2012.

Let’s tackle the biggest rumor first. Last night, I started seeing rumors on Twitter and Tumblr that Harry had punched someone. Alleged details started to come out via Yahoo! Answers and other sites with crowdsourced info; Tumblr user harrysnostrilcave sums up the main points:

So Harry was apparently drunk to the point where he couldn’t walk straight and the guy was a paparazzi and Harry punched him. I guess the police are now searching and investigating the boys… (someone could get arrested). But I highly doubt anyone will, he just got punched not stabbed…

The majority of fans figure that this is all hearsay, since the boys didn’t confirm it. (Also, there was a similarly frenzied rumor some time ago about Harry streaking through an airport. That boy gets a lot of fake press.) Apparently the tweet originated with someone called @nouseh, but that account has since been suspended. The last I heard of all this, someone on Tumblr had cracked a variation on the Mean Girls joke: “Harry Styles punched me in the face. It was awesome.”
Other news from the premiere obsessed over the boys’ outfits and the fact that Harry is single again. OneDirection.net says that when asked how was single, only Harry and Niall Horan put their hands up; The Mirror quotes Louis Tomlinson as saying that Harry is no longer dating Emily Atack, an actress on the BBC show The Inbetweeners.

Men in Black 3 was never going to be a blockbuster, but you would think that the original movie would at least be beloved enough for people to actually focus on that world for just one night. You can get 1D news any other day. Ah, well. If you actually want to know what people think of MIB3, check out this review.